Best Birthday Present Ever!!!

I woke up to a beautiful planter out on the patio - a great start to my 70th birthday!  Jack bought flowers and surprised me with them at the office.  After "work,"  we went to Texas Roadhouse where I got salmon and a free side-kick of ribs, because I had a birthday coupon.  All in all, it was a pretty great day.  But the best was yet to come.

I had just started eating my dinner, when I happened to check my phone for email.  There was one there from my daughter-in-law, Becky.  She had a special story to tell...

Our home teachers came to visit us in December and towards the end of the lesson (which was on missionary work) he challenged our family to find someone to share our testimony with and to hand them a Book Of Mormon. That night, Jordan asked Bryan to help him write his testimony in a Book Of Mormon so he could give it to his friend Maurice who lives down the street from us.  He ended up taking that Book Of Mormon with his testimony written inside to school the next day and gave it to Maurice.  

A few weeks later, Jordan invited Maurice to come to church with us.  He accepted and came with us totally not knowing what to expect.  I will never forget that Sunday morning, how awesome it was to watch Jordan walk up to his door to get him.  Out comes Maurice in his regular day to day clothes, and carrying his Book Of Mormon.  As we sat down in the chapel, Maurice sat down next to me.  I happened to glance down at his Book Of Mormon and noticed a book mark inside.  I asked Maurice if he was reading the book, and he was super quick to say, "yes, and I am already on Helaman."  I was shocked, and truly believed him, he was excited about how far he was, as were the rest of us.  We had mentioned to the missionaries that Maurice was coming to church with Jordan and they wanted to come to meet him.  They made it, and introduced themselves to him during Sunday School class.  We set a date for Maurice and some of their friends from school to come to our house on Thursday to play some football with the missionaries, eat some hot dogs and have a little lesson, he said that would be cool, so things started to look even more positive with all of this.  After church we invited Maurice over for lunch.  As we were discussing what everyone learned in their classes that day, Maurice just piped right in, and started telling us how they learned a song about all the Apostles of the church.  The amazing thing with that is that he remembered all of their names.  Me and Bryan were amazed.  Bryan asked Maurice how he felt while he was in church, and his response was, "Happy."  I just loved that, it was enough to bring tears to your eyes for sure.  AWESOME!!!

Thursday rolled around and all of Jordan's friends and Maurice showed up to the house and so did the missionaries.  What a fun sight that was to watch all those boys having fun playing football with Elder Lima, and Elder Ribeiro.  After about an hour playing, Bryan had grilled some hotdogs for everyone, so they took a break and ate some lunch.  After lunch they gathered around the table and listened to an awesome lesson the missionaries gave about becoming clean after baptism.  It was a cool object lesson, with water, dish soap, and pepper.  All the boys were way into it.  It got Maurice excited and wanting to know a little more, so the missionaries offered to meet with him again and to talk with his Grandparents about possibly teaching Maurice the discussions.  I'm telling you, our missionaries in our area right now are AWESOME and on a roll!!  They met with his grandparents and they had nothing against them teaching Maurice, and with just the few things that lead up to that, his little brother Marcus was now interested as well, and will start coming with Maurice.  The grandpa actually said to the missionaries how impressed he has been with the family standards the church has, and said he would read the Book of Mormon as well.  Not quite ready to be taught, but reading the Book Of Mormon is a great start, right?

Jordan invited Maurice to come to church the next Sunday. We went to pick him up, and we were all shocked when we saw him walk out.  This time Maurice was looking super sharp and had church attire on, tie and all.  His grandma (who he lives with with his other siblings) went out and bought him his own church clothes.  It was awesome!!  After church we told him that the next weekend would be General Conference and we will be watching it from our house and we invited he and his brother Marcus over to watch it with us as well as the missionaries.  

So another week came and the missionaries came to our house to give some lessons to Maurice and Marcus.  One thing that has been really cool to watch with these darling missionaries, is they teach these young boys with such awesome object lessons.  Ones that they will never forget.  Sunday rolled around and this time both Maurice and Marcus walked out both in their church attire and ready to go.  It was fast Sunday. The funniest thing little Marcus said during sacrament meeting was "Hey, Jordan said today was fast Sunday, and I don't think this is really fast."  I just giggled and told him that we still had another 2 hours.  But I did promise him if he was good he could go to Bryan's office after church for a treat.  They all made it through just fine.  

The next week brought a few more lessons for the boys, a missed Sunday because their family went camping over Easter weekend, but it also brought a commitment from both of them to get baptized this Saturday April 26th:):):)  SO SO HAPPY!!!  I really can't believe that this has happened for little Jordan.  And this may have a huge domino affect on Maurice's whole family.  He has two younger siblings, and this also may just change the lives of his Grandparents.  He has been so excited, and from what Bryan is telling me, I guess I won't be surprised if the missionaries ask Jordan to give a little talk at the baptism.  AAGH!!!  

All this has gone down because of the faith of my little Jordan:):)  It makes me happy to know that he is a little missionary even if he doesn't wear that tag, and what a great example he is to all of us.   Helping us realize that you just never know who's life you may change just by sharing your testimony and giving someone the Book of Mormon.:):)

I sat there at the table in the restaurant, reading this email and tears were running down both cheeks.  I will never forget that night!  I am so proud of this cute grandson!